In a written statement attributed to an unnamed State
Department official, the United States said its
reconnaissance plane looking for drug smugglers provided
Peruvian authorities with the seaplane's location.

However, U.S. officials said Peru was responsible for
identifying the aircraft and deciding on any action.

"Pending a thorough investigation and review by Peruvian and
U.S. officials of how this tragic incident took place, the
provision of location data by the U.S. and the conduct of
interdiction flights by Peru have been suspended," the
statement said.

Wounded in the attack, seaplane pilot Kevin Donaldson made an
emergency landing on the Amazon River. Veronica Bowers, 35,
and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, died in the attack.
Bowers' husband, Jim, and their son, Cory, escaped unhurt.

Donaldson's son, Benjamin Donaldson, said the a bullet severed major arteries in his father's leg. The pilot's father, Richmond Donaldson, told CNN the
survivors will be flown to Texas, and Donaldson will then be flown to
Pennsylvania for what is expected to be extensive surgery.

Jim and Veronica Bowers had been in Peru for eight years,
working on a riverboat, traveling up and down the Amazon and
its tributaries. They ministered in villages and worked in
medical clinics and literacy programs for the Association of
Baptists for World Evangelism, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-
based mission.

The 74-year-old organization has about 1,300 missionaries in
65 countries, said its president, Michael Loftus. The couple
had flown with Donaldson to the border town of Benjamin
Constant, site of the nearest U.S. consulate, to obtain a
visa for the infant, he said.

"Central aviation authorities had given him a landing slot.
How could he be in contact with the civil authorities and
their own military not know about it?" Loftus said.

Peru says plane did not identify itself

A statement from the Peruvian Air Force on the incident said
an unidentified plane they said had not filed a flight plan
was detected entering Peruvian air space from Brazil around
10 a.m. Friday. A Cessna A-37B, with the assistance of the
reconnaissance plane, "proceeded to intercept the unknown
airship."

Kevin Donaldson is carried by medical workers in Iquitos, Peru, on Saturday

After the missionaries' Cessna 185 did not respond to a
command to identify itself, the air force plane fired, the
statement said. It said the air force has initiated an
investigation, "lamenting profoundly the loss of human life."

Richmond Donaldson disputed that account, saying Peruvian
controllers knew his son's plane was on the way.

"He radioed into the tower in Iquitos," Donaldson said. "The
tower received his call, he said his location and the time he
would arrive, and then it was just 10 minutes after that the
jets came in and fired on the plane.

"I don't understand why they did not hear that he was
contacting with the tower," he said.

Loftus said the plane never left Peruvian air space. He could
not say definitively that a flight plan had been filed but
said it was common practice.

Bush offers condolences

The incident occurred as both U.S. President George W. Bush and
Peruvian Prime Minister Perez de Cuellar attended the Summit
of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada.

De Cuellar approached Bush and "expressed his deep regret and
offered to help the families in any way he could," White
House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Bush said he would "wait to see all the facts" before
assigning any blame, "but right now, we mourn for the loss of
two lives."

The U.S. Embassy in Lima originally said the American reconnaissance
aircraft was in the area but did not participate in shooting
down the missionaries' plane.

Between 1994 and 1997, Peru shot down about 25 suspected drug
planes on their way from camps in Peru's Amazon to Colombian
cocaine refineries. As a result, smugglers began using
Brazilian and Venezuelan airspace to move drug shipments,
former U.S. anti-drug chief Barry McCaffrey said.

"There has to be strict compliance with safety concerns,"
McCaffrey told NBC's "Meet the Press." "But we've got to be
very determined to confront a criminal organization that
kills 52,000 Americans a year."